2,784 research outputs found
Penile metastasis from primary transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis: first manifestation of systemic spread
BACKGROUND: Almost one-third of all penile metastases are detected at the same time as a primary tumor, whereas the remaining two-thirds are detected a mean of 18 months after the discovery of the primary tumor. Cutaneous metastasis of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is extremely rare and generally accepted as the late manifestation of a systemic spread. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the first case of simultaneous penile and lung metastases from a primary TCC of the renal pelvis in a 76-year-old man, that occurred 8 years after a left nephroureterectomy. CONCLUSIONS: This case report underscores the importance of physical examinations of the skin of patients who undergo surgical procedures for TCC from bladder as well as from the upper urinary tract, including those seemingly without metastatic disease, because of the possibility of skin and penile metastatic spread
Pseudogap temperature as a Widom line in doped Mott insulators
The pseudogap refers to an enigmatic state of matter with unusual physical
properties found below a characteristic temperature in hole-doped
high-temperature superconductors. Determining is critical for
understanding this state. Here we study the simplest model of correlated
electron systems, the Hubbard model, with cluster dynamical mean-field theory
to find out whether the pseudogap can occur solely because of strong coupling
physics and short nonlocal correlations. We find that the pseudogap
characteristic temperature is a sharp crossover between different
dynamical regimes along a line of thermodynamic anomalies that appears above a
first-order phase transition, the Widom line. The Widom line emanating from the
critical endpoint of a first-order transition is thus the organizing principle
for the pseudogap phase diagram of the cuprates. No additional broken symmetry
is necessary to explain the phenomenon. Broken symmetry states appear in the
pseudogap and not the other way around.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures and supplementary information; published versio
An international comparative study of blood pressure in populations of European vs. African descent
Background: The consistent finding of higher prevalence of hypertension in US blacks compared
to whites has led to speculation that African-origin populations are particularly susceptible to this
condition. Large surveys now provide new information on this issue.
Methods: Using a standardized analysis strategy we examined prevalence estimates for 8 white
and 3 black populations (N = 85,000 participants).
Results: The range in hypertension prevalence was from 27 to 55% for whites and 14 to 44% for
blacks.
Conclusions: These data demonstrate that not only is there a wide variation in hypertension
prevalence among both racial groups, the rates among blacks are not unusually high when viewed
internationally. These data suggest that the impact of environmental factors among both
populations may have been under-appreciated
Recommended from our members
Bioavailability in soils
The consumption of locally-produced vegetables by humans may be an important exposure pathway for soil contaminants in many urban settings and for agricultural land use. Hence, prediction of metal and metalloid uptake by vegetables from contaminated soils is an important part of the Human Health Risk Assessment procedure. The behaviour of metals (cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, lead and zinc) and metalloids (arsenic, boron and selenium) in contaminated soils depends to a large extent on the intrinsic charge, valence and speciation of the contaminant ion, and soil properties such as pH, redox status and contents of clay and/or organic matter. However, chemistry and behaviour of the contaminant in soil alone cannot predict soil-to-plant transfer. Root uptake, root selectivity, ion interactions, rhizosphere processes, leaf uptake from the atmosphere, and plant partitioning are important processes that ultimately govern the accumulation ofmetals and metalloids in edible vegetable tissues. Mechanistic models to accurately describe all these processes have not yet been developed, let alone validated under field conditions. Hence, to estimate risks by vegetable consumption, empirical models have been used to correlate concentrations of metals and metalloids in contaminated soils, soil physico-chemical characteristics, and concentrations of elements in vegetable tissues. These models should only be used within the bounds of their calibration, and often need to be re-calibrated or validated using local soil and environmental conditions on a regional or site-specific basis.Mike J. McLaughlin, Erik Smolders, Fien Degryse, and Rene Rietr
Evaluating Depressive Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A Psychometric Comparison of the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale
Background: The aim of this study was to compare two measures of depression in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorder, including patients with delusional and schizoaffective disorder, to conclude implications for their application. Sampling and Methods: A total of 278 patients were assessed using the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was also applied. At admission and discharge, a principal component analysis was performed with each depression scale. The two depression rating scales were furthermore compared using correlation and regression analyses. Results: Three factors were revealed for the CDSS and HAMD-17 factor component analysis. A very similar item loading was found for the CDSS at admission and discharge, whereas results of the loadings of the HAMD-17 items were less stable. The first two factors of the CDSS revealed correlations with positive, negative and general psychopathology. In contrast, multiple significant correlations were found for the HAMD-17 factors and the PANSS sub-scores. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the HAMD-17 accounted more for the positive and negative symptom domains than the CDSS. Conclusions:The present results suggest that compared to the HAMD-17, the CDSS is a more specific instrument to measure depressive symptoms in schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorder, especially in acutely ill patients. Copyright (c) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base
Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase dentified as a key enzyme in erythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum carbon metabolism
Phospoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) is absent from humans but encoded in thePlasmodium falciparum genome, suggesting that PEPC has a parasite-specific function. To investigate its importance in P. falciparum, we generated a pepc null mutant (D10Δpepc), which was only achievable when malate, a reduction product of oxaloacetate, was added to the growth medium. D10Δpepc had a severe growth defect in vitro, which was partially reversed by addition of malate or fumarate, suggesting that pepc may be essential in vivo. Targeted metabolomics using 13C-U-D-glucose and 13C-bicarbonate showed that the conversion of glycolytically-derived PEP into malate, fumarate, aspartate and citrate was abolished in D10Δpepc and that pentose phosphate pathway metabolites and glycerol 3-phosphate were present at increased levels. In contrast, metabolism of the carbon skeleton of 13C,15N-U-glutamine was similar in both parasite lines, although the flux was lower in D10Δpepc; it also confirmed the operation of a complete forward TCA cycle in the wild type parasite. Overall, these data confirm the CO2 fixing activity of PEPC and suggest that it provides metabolites essential for TCA cycle anaplerosis and the maintenance of cytosolic and mitochondrial redox balance. Moreover, these findings imply that PEPC may be an exploitable target for future drug discovery
Upregulation of the cell-cycle regulator RGC-32 in Epstein-Barr virus-immortalized cells
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple human tumours of lymphoid and epithelial origin. The virus infects and immortalizes B cells establishing a persistent latent infection characterized by varying patterns of EBV latent gene expression (latency 0, I, II and III). The CDK1 activator, Response Gene to Complement-32 (RGC-32, C13ORF15), is overexpressed in colon, breast and ovarian cancer tissues and we have detected selective high-level RGC-32 protein expression in EBV-immortalized latency III cells. Significantly, we show that overexpression of RGC-32 in B cells is sufficient to disrupt G2 cell-cycle arrest consistent with activation of CDK1, implicating RGC-32 in the EBV transformation process. Surprisingly, RGC-32 mRNA is expressed at high levels in latency I Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells and in some EBV-negative BL cell-lines, although RGC-32 protein expression is not detectable. We show that RGC-32 mRNA expression is elevated in latency I cells due to transcriptional activation by high levels of the differentially expressed RUNX1c transcription factor. We found that proteosomal degradation or blocked cytoplasmic export of the RGC-32 message were not responsible for the lack of RGC-32 protein expression in latency I cells. Significantly, analysis of the ribosomal association of the RGC-32 mRNA in latency I and latency III cells revealed that RGC-32 transcripts were associated with multiple ribosomes in both cell-types implicating post-initiation translational repression mechanisms in the block to RGC-32 protein production in latency I cells. In summary, our results are the first to demonstrate RGC-32 protein upregulation in cells transformed by a human tumour virus and to identify post-initiation translational mechanisms as an expression control point for this key cell-cycle regulator
Microwave studies of the fractional Josephson effect in HgTe-based Josephson junctions
The rise of topological phases of matter is strongly connected to their
potential to host Majorana bound states, a powerful ingredient in the search
for a robust, topologically protected, quantum information processing. In order
to produce such states, a method of choice is to induce superconductivity in
topological insulators. The engineering of the interplay between
superconductivity and the electronic properties of a topological insulator is a
challenging task and it is consequently very important to understand the
physics of simple superconducting devices such as Josephson junctions, in which
new topological properties are expected to emerge. In this article, we review
recent experiments investigating topological superconductivity in topological
insulators, using microwave excitation and detection techniques. More
precisely, we have fabricated and studied topological Josephson junctions made
of HgTe weak links in contact with two Al or Nb contacts. In such devices, we
have observed two signatures of the fractional Josephson effect, which is
expected to emerge from topologically-protected gapless Andreev bound states.
We first recall the theoretical background on topological Josephson junctions,
then move to the experimental observations. Then, we assess the topological
origin of the observed features and conclude with an outlook towards more
advanced microwave spectroscopy experiments, currently under development.Comment: Lectures given at the San Sebastian Topological Matter School 2017,
published in "Topological Matter. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences,
vol 190. Springer
Wilson Expansion of QCD Propagators at Three Loops: Operators of Dimension Two and Three
In this paper we construct the Wilson short distance operator product
expansion for the gluon, quark and ghost propagators in QCD, including
operators of dimension two and three, namely, A^2, m^2, m A^2, \ovl{\psi} \psi
and m^3. We compute analytically the coefficient functions of these operators
at three loops for all three propagators in the general covariant gauge. Our
results, taken in the Landau gauge, should help to improve the accuracy of
extracting the vacuum expectation values of these operators from lattice
simulation of the QCD propagators.Comment: 20 pages, no figure
- …